First 'Idol' elimination not a complete surprise

Tim Urban's reggae interpretation of "Under My Thumb" was bizarre, but was it bad enough to cause his elimination?Wednesday's American Idol results show offered up several surprises, the least of which was the identity of the eliminated contestant. The first surprise came early in the show when host Ryan Seacrest announced the return of the "judges' save." This element, which was first instituted last season, allows the judges to override the voters' choice and keep the person with the least amount of votes around for at least one more week.

Last season, the judges used the save when Matt Giraud faced elimination in the Top 7. Matt ultimately lasted until the Top 5.

Another element of surprise was Ke$ha's uneven and rather bizarre performance of her nonsensical single, "Blah, Blah, Blah." The performance featured dancers dressed as televisions and the singer sporting a full, feathered headdress.

The results show also featured performances by Oriathi, best known as the guitar player from Michael Jackson's "This is It" tour and Season 7 winner David Cook who showed the Top 12 how "Jumpin' Jack Flash" is supposed to be done.

The bottom three came down to Paige Miles, Lacey Brown, and Tim Urban. The surprise here was that Tim was the first of the three sent back to safety, leaving Paige and Lacey as the two with the lowest amount of votes. Ultimately, it was Lacey who found herself singing for survival, trying to woo the judges with another performance of "The Story," arguably her best performance of the series. It didn't work. In a unanimous decision, Lacey's elimination was upheld.

While there's no question that Tim Urban deserved to go home after his ridiculous interpretation of "Gimme Shelter, Lacey never shouldn't have gotten this far in the first place. She was arguably the weakest female in the Top 24. Lilly or even Katelyn deserved that spot, and Lacey' s prompt dismissal is somewhat comforting.

As for Tim, while many predicted he would be the first to go, I've learned that we should never underestimate the power of Vote for the Worst who have championed Tim from the start of the Top 24.